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Day: March 30, 2011

I truly believe that GOP politicians are unaware of the political pulse of the nation. They are myopic in their quests to legislate the most extreme laws thinking that the “American people” as they often refer to us, are on the side of conservative governance. I suspect that there will be a rude awakening in the next two November elections.

First with national referenda to vote down extreme legislation in several states. Secondly with recalls of certain extreme legislators in those states. Finally, a rejection of GOP extreme conservatism resulting in a second term for President Obama and most likely a return to the Dems controlling both houses.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Tuesday signed into law a controversial bill that makes the state the first in the nation to outlaw abortions performed on the basis of the race or gender of the fetus.

The move comes as anti-abortion groups across the nation try to seize on gains made by political conservatives during the November elections, seeking enactment of new state laws to further restrict abortions.

Under the new Arizona statute, doctors and other medical professionals would face felony charges if they could be shown to have performed abortions for the purposes of helping parents select their offspring on the basis of gender or race.

The women having such abortions would not be penalized.

State legislators have said no such law exists anywhere else in the nation.

Backers of the measure said the ban is needed to put an end to sex- and race-related discrimination that exists in Arizona and throughout the nation. They insist the issue is about bias rather than any broader stance on abortion. Read More…

Herman Cain, another likely GOP presidential contender, said over the weekend that he would not appoint a Muslim to his administration or the federal courts because he believes all Muslims “force their Sharia law onto the rest of us.”

Of course, if you were to substitute “black” or “Jew” for “Muslim” in Cain’s remarks, he would be lucky to get a job delivering for Papa John’s.

But these disgusting comments won’t hurt him at all because a) he’s competing in the Republican primary, where unabashed bigotry is actually a plus; and b) Muslim-bashing is still greeted with yawns in this country.

Anyway, since Cain wants to be President of the United States, and he’d have to defend the Constitution and promise not break the law and stuff, he might want to consult Article VI, paragraph 3, which reads,

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

One of the mantras of congressional Republicans over the past two years has been to ask, “Where are the jobs?” House GOP leader John Boehner (OH) made this into a theme of the campaign last fall. As then-GOP chairman Michael Steele summarized the argument: “Americans are still asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’ … Washington Democrats still have no answers.”

This afternoon, Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and other progressives took to the floor of the House of Representatives to turn this question back on their Republican colleagues. Ellison and the others asked where all the jobs-creation legislation was, excoriating their conservative colleagues for focusing on legislation like terminating the HAMP program, which would do nothing to create jobs:

– Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN): “The Republicans’ no-jobs agenda has been exposed, Mr. Chair. The majority has done nothing to create jobs or protect homes. All they do is criticize programs that could use some improvement. Rather, they would get rid of them altogether.”

– Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY): “[The Republicans] have no plans of their own to address the foreclosure crisis that is hurting neighborhoods and disrupting lives throughout their country. Like the jobs bills they said they would have. We have yet to see them.”

– Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX): “Your cities have been impacted positively by the HAMP program. Job growth is picking up. Investing and growing jobs should be the mindset of the American Congress for that’s what we were sent back to Washington to do.”

At one point, Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL) took to the floor to respond to the progressives. She attacked the HAMP program, urging her colleagues to end it, and signaled that she would oppose progressive amendments to the GOP’s bill for ending the mortgage modification program. Then, she incredulously told her colleagues to stop talking about jobs and focus rather on the substance of the amendments:

BIGGERT: I would urge my colleagues to support — oppose this amendment. And stop talking about jobs, let’s focus on the substance of these amendments.

Watch it:

One would have to wonder what a certain congresswoman who asked at a hearing — on February 25, 2010 — “Where are the jobs?” would think about Biggert’s statement. That congresswoman was Biggert herself. Watch it:

Perhaps it’s not fair to call people stupid or ignorant. Yet, when politicians tell outright lies, make strange accusations against the POTUS, make blatant mistakes about facts, and rely on conjecture rather than those facts, then come on, are they not one sandwich short of a Happy Meal and rather ignorant to boot?

How Dumb Are We? That was the question Newsweek posed last week when we asked 1,000 Americans to take the nation’s citizenship test—and 38 percent of test takers failed.

The Daily Beast decided to have some fun with this idea and take it a step further: If a populace has an ignorance problem, it stands to reason that some of their elected leaders are stoking it. While knowledge gaps among elected officials can sometimes be explained by the constant scrutiny of public office, some gaffes are simply too erroneous to excuse.

Exhibit 1: Michele Bachmann, U.S. representative from Minnesota, who infamously said during two recent events in New Hampshire, “You’re the state where the shot was heard ‘round the world at Lexington and Concord.” Negatory. That state was Massachusetts.

Exhibit 2: Harry Reid, senator from Nevada, during last year’s knock-down drag-out election battle against Sharron Angle, had several major foot-in-mouth moments. Among them, “I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican.” Sorry, Harry. A solid 31 percent of Hispanics voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, according to the Pew Research Center.

We could go on, but that might take all week. Instead, The Daily Beast tried to measure the most fact-challenged politicians in America, who, based on their public statements, apparently need to brush up on their high-school reading. For our data, we relied on Politifact, the Pulitzer Prize-winning website founded by the St. Petersburg Times, which independently verifies or corrects statements made by public officials. We limited our pool to well-known politicians with at least six statements inspected by Politifact, and then assigned a point system based on Politifact’s Truth-O-Meter designations:

For the final ranking, we took each politician’s point total and divided by the total number of statements analyzed by Politifact for each politician. Care to take an educated guess at America’s Most Ignorant Politician? Click here to find out.